


HIV+

by Kimnd



Category: Bully (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Attempt at Emotional Support, Diary/Journal, Failed Safer Sex, Gen, HIV/AIDS, Jimmy is pretty ignorant about STIs, M/M, Multi, Reaction to diagnosis, Shameless Safer Sex Propaganda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 00:08:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12157593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimnd/pseuds/Kimnd
Summary: Jimmy is diagnosed with HIV disease and writes a journal entry trying to process his sudden flood of questions.His friends have their own... unique responses.





	1. Dear Diary

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for my Biology of AIDS course. The prompt was to write a fictitious journal entry you might write if you were diagnosed as HIV positive. I decided to write from Jimmy's perspective instead--I didn't really have any questions that I wouldn't just look up instead of writing down.
> 
> There isn't anything graphic in this story, but sex and HIV are discussed candidly. If that makes you uncomfortable, go read the G-rated story I wrote about time loops instead!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jimmy, to the surprise of everybody, asks a bunch of questions, most of which are actually pretty smart.

\----Jimmy Hopkins journal, I guess: October 20th, 2014

Hey. …so, um. I just got home. From the doctor, I mean. And Gary isn’t here so I wanna get my thoughts down on paper.

It, uh, turns out I’m HIV positive. I’ve been using those at-home tests for a while now, and a few months ago I got a maybe-bad, uh, reading. So then I went to the real doctor and got an actual test and they called me in just last week for an appointment and, well. Yeah. The nurse was pretty nice—he gave me a pamphlet about it and talked about how “HIV is a manageable disease now” and that he knew people who’d been living with HIV for, like, twenty years. He was pretty hot, too. Nice jawline. I couldn’t even really think of anything to say, though. He was all “Please if you have any questions feel free to ask, bla bla bla,” but my mind went totally blank. I just thanked him and left.

While I was on the bus some of the mind-static cleared and I called Pete. He was typical Pete, all “You’ll be okay”, “You’ve got my help if you ever need it”, “Get a good night’s sleep”, that kinda thing. But all’a the sudden it was like I’d thought of a zillion questions, and I think I kinda freaked him out when I started grilling him. I mean he’s a freakin’ painting major, not a biologist. Anyway, he told me I should write down whatever questions pop in my head so I found a pen on the bus. [A piece of paper with type on one side and scribbled notes on the other is stapled to the page, note side-up]

  * Can I not have sex with guys anymore



\-->like is oral okay but anal’s out?

  * What about girls? Do I always gotta wear a condom now?
  * I know there’s a female condom too, would that work too?
  * how expensive are the meds for this?



\-->can I even afford it without insurance?

  * should i tell my mom
  * what about step-douche #8 or whatever
  * what’ll happen when I leave school?
  * what’s hiv got to do with aids anyway?
  * when that nurse guy said he’d known people who lived for 20 years with hiv is that, like, a long time?



\-->(cause it doesn’t seem like all that long to me)

  * how’d I get infected?
  * was it that guy from the party last Friday



\-->is it even more likely to be a dude?

\-->I mean I know girls get it too… but which is more likely?

I thought of a couple more as I was walking back to my dorm:

  * Do I have to tell **_every_** body I wanna have sex with that I’ve got HIV? Should I?
  * Am I gonna get herpes now? (okay, like, is it more likely for me to get it?)
  * Is sex the only way it can spread? I know it’s not like the flu or anything, but what about making out with somebody? Or what if somebody else eats some of my food?



Alright I think that’s all I got. Ya know, it’s funny—I used to be pretty proud of how even though I have a ton of sex I’ve never once gotten herpes, even though it’s super common. Zoe’d probably call that ‘ironic’, but whenever I call something ironic Gary says it’s wrong so who the fuck knows. …WAIT SHIT can I not jerk off anymore!? Shiiiit I really shoulda stayed and asked that guy some questions. Then again maybe it’s better that I didn’t ask him _that_ …

I really hope these questions aren’t stupid; ‘s what I get for not paying attention in Bio 101 or sex ed back in Bullworth. ‘course Burton wasn’t exactly a great teacher, so who knows. Maybe I woulda learned jack shit if I’d paid attention, anyway.

Anyway Gary just walked in so I’d better tell him so he doesn’t torture Pete to figure out what’s goin’ on, so, uh… later?

\--JH Out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a story I wrote for my Biology of AIDS course. The prompt was to write a fictitious journal entry you might write if you were diagnosed as HIV positive. I decided to write from Jimmy's perspective instead--I didn't really have any questions that I wouldn't just look up instead of writing down.
> 
> Let me know if you'd be interested in reading more stuff like this--I wouldn't say no to writing summaries of my course and how Jimmy would react to all the facts. ...actually, now that I think about it, he'd probably enjoy the lectures, if not the statistical analysis and advanced biology.
> 
> Anyhow, feedback is always appreciated, like comment and subscribe!
> 
> ...wait


	2. Pete

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete tries to help. He's not sure how much good it does.

I was comparing a couple of different brands of cheap ramen when my phone rang. It was Jimmy’s ringtone, so I tossed one of the packages in my basket and fished out my phone with the other hand. “Hey, Jimmy; what’s up?” He doesn’t normally call me, so this was already a little odd.

It was a little hard to hear his voice with all the noise on my end—and knowing Jimmy, he’d probably called me on the bus or something. “Doc says I’m positive.”

For a second I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. “Positive? For… oh.” Right… I’d chewed him out for not being sure whether he should get tested or not. I pulled my cart over to an unoccupied corner and quietly asked, “Are you alright?”

A sudden burst of fuzz indicated that he’d sighed. “‘Course not— **obviously**.”

I felt a clenching in my stomach and quickly added, “Sorry, I didn’t mean–”

But he interrupted. “‘S fine, dude. Forget about it.” There was a long moment where I wasn’t sure what to say. But suddenly he started bombarding me with questions… none of which I knew the answer to. “Hey how much are the meds for this anyway?”

“Uh”

“Shit, can I not have sex at all anymore?”

“I don’t really kn–”

“Hey, what’s HIV even got to do with AIDS?”

I shrugged, and started heading toward the checkout. “You know I’m not sure…”

Now that he was asking all these questions, I realized I don’t know all that much about HIV myself. “The guy said that people live for, like, twenty years with HIV… is that, like, the best I’m gonna get?…” These were all good questions, and I’d never even thought to ask this sort of thing. I’ve ever even known anybody with HIV before, and I’m not exactly at high risk to get it.

As I made it up to the checkout line and began unloading my basket, I tried replying, “I’m… I’m sure you’ll be okay, Jimmy.” He didn’t say anything for a while so I just watched the cashier scan my items. I turned away, speaking a little quietly now. This conversation was really more of a private thing. “Listen, if you ever need help with something, you can always ask me, alright? Even if it’s just to talk.” I couldn’t be sure, but I might’ve heard a grunt of acknowledgement. Thinking fast, I tried to add a little levity to the situation by saying, “I know Gary isn’t the most understanding person on Earth, so if you ever get tired of him—”

Jimmy’s barking laugh cut me off, and I felt a smile spread across my own face too. “A’ight, I get’cjhya Pete.”

As I dug around my pockets trying to figure out which one had my wallet, I said, “You know those questions are probably really good—you should write them down!”

“Sure, whatever Pete.”

“I’m serious! You need to ask **some** body these questions.”

“Alright, fine. Happy now?”

“Very.” I shouldered the bags of groceries and headed for the door, saying as I went, “Look, just get a lot of sleep—I know how you get! Don’t just go looking for an excuse to party, okay?”

He huffed. “What’re you, my freakin’ mom?” But relented and agreed before hanging up. Now all I could do was hope he actually listened to me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update to a story that literally nobody asked for? Sure! Give the people what they don't know they want, that's my motto.
> 
> I wrote some more for this when I wrote my midterm for the same class, so I figured I should post more stuff from the same 'universe' here as well.


	3. oh hey gary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gary is...
> 
> Gary.

Something had been up with the moron for about a week, now. But I am nothing if not observant, and by discretely observing his passcode and reading his texts while he was downstairs doing laundry, I was able to deduce that he’d told Petey whatever this issue was, judging from his winey texts about Jimmy not telling ‘them’… something.  Something else of note was his text-conversation with Zoe, which seemed to be oddly quiet on his side of things, with Zoe receiving no replies to her invitations for a ‘partay at some rich assholes place dude / lotta booze / wanna go?’ And a similar pattern of behavior extended to not one but two of his favorite fuckbuddies. As soon as I heard our dorm room opening, I commented, “Sheesh, moron. Seems awfully douchey of you to leave ‘Ballsdeep69’ with no reply to their request to…” I read the text while Jimmy’s head whipped around out of the corner of my eye. “‘Fuck like a couple of slugs?’” I snorted at the mental image as he snatched his phone out of my hand. “I wonder if they know how gross looking that is.”

Sadly, he took the most boring possible response by growling, “Don’t read my fuckin’ phone, asshole” in what I’m sure would’ve been a very threatening way if I were Petey.

Instead, I rolled my eyes. “Puh-lease, Jimmy. I, unlike your ‘honnies’” I added some massive air quotes for this before continuing, “have the displeasure of living with you seven days of the week. And you’ve obviously been hiding something you don’t want anybody to know about, so that just means I have no choice but to try and figure it out!”

Pulling a t-shirt on and flopping onto his bed to glare at me from across the room, he said petulantly, “How the fuck’s it any of your business? You’re the smart guy, can’tchya tell I don’t wanna talk about it?”

“But you’re talking to Petey just fine!” I pointed out. “Which implies that you’re only keeping the knowledge from some specific people.” Before I’d even finished, he started groaning.

“Oh boy, here we go! Look if you really wanna know that bad, I tested positive for HIV, okay?” …Huh. I suppose that wasn’t particularly surprising, given his history, but still.

“That’s…” I tried to think of what Petey would say in this situation. “…unfortunate?”

Jimmy let out a bark of sardonic laugher at that. “Yeah, ‘unfortunate’ is totally the word I’d use, dude.”

I elected to ignore that. “But you’ve been using protection, right?”

He grimaced as he pulled some papers out of his backpack. “I mean, for the most part, yeah… But not, like, every time, you know?”

“No, I don’t know,” I rolled my desk chair over so I was right in front of him and began staring at him intently. “Please, enlighten me.”

He sighed, but complied. “It’s just a lotta work, you know? I mean, you’ve never, ya know…” Shrugging awkwardly, he finished, “It’s just annoying to have to stop in the middle of things.”

“Really?” I found this rather odd. “I’ve always found the idea of using condoms pretty appealing.”

Jimmy looked up from his papers in surprise. “Seriously?” He adopted a patronizing expression. “You don’t know how much of the sensation it cuts out, man. Bareback’s the way to go for sure.”

I shrugged. “When the person you’re most attracted to is already reluctant to have sex at all, the idea of actually managing to convince him to go further is what makes it sexy,” Not that that kept the whole business with Petey from going south. “Besides, watching somebody roll a condom on your dick is preeeeety hot.”

His face scrunched up in confusion. Hesitantly, he replied, “I guess… I dunno it’s just not my thing, I guess.”

I nodded in agreement. “I suppose that’s fair,” A few moments after he turned back to his papers I added, “A shame you didn’t; maybe you could’ve avoided spreading an incurable disease to four people.”

He glanced up, his default glare in place, but he quickly shut his mouth. Before he could really muster a response, I pushed off and rolled back over to my desk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sheesh Gary, way to end it on a downer. (he's kind of right though--always use protection folks!)
> 
> Aaanywho, that's all I got! If I wrote more for this I'd probably make it either more about Gary or Zoe, since I can see them possibly getting into HIV and researching it a whole bunch. Maybe if I ever go through my old bio notes.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
